Sulfur Deactivation Effects on Catalytic Steam Reforming of Methane Produced by Biomass Gasification

Sulfur, which is incorporated in the biomass structure, is released into the product gas during gasification as hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide is known to deactivate nickel based steam reforming catalysts by chemisorption on the metal surface during steam reforming process. Desulfurization has a negative effect on the process efficiency therefore steam reforming has to be run without cleaning the gas prior to the reactor. In developing of these kind of reactors the knowledge of the temperature profiles and gas compositions within the reactor are also play an important role to achieve the best performance. This paper consideres the effect of sulfur on methane conversion, hydrogen yield and temperature distribution in axial and radial direction within the reactor.